AN 11th hour bid to block charging a £10 annual registration fee for shopmobility users was defeated at Redditch full council on Monday evening (February 20).
The move was made by Councillor Anita Clayton (Con, Batchley) herself a mobility scooter user and current chair of Disability Action Redditch.
She proposed an amendment removing the £10 charge and a £5 charge for customers who only used the service occasionally and didn’t want to register.
The charges have been put on the table by the cash strapped council in a bid to cut the £69,000 it currently costs it to run the service.
“I am disappointed at the extra membership charge for disabled people – the £10 and £5 seems rather excessive and they will have to pay for parking too which will make it very expensive for the disabled to come to Redditch,” said Coun Clayton.
However Coun Greg Chance (Lab, Central) deputy leader of the council said the charges were being introduced to maintain the service for the future.
“The service costs £69,000 to deliver on top of contributions from the Kingfisher Shopping Centre and others. Given the ideologically driven cuts that this council has had imposed on it these costs have now become unsustainable,” he said.
The chamber heard that Redditch had been one of the first authority’s in the country to introduce shopmobility while an extensive report and survey had found users would be prepared to pay to use the service.
The proposal was for a hire charge of £2 for residents, £3 for non-residents, a £10 annual registration fee and a £5 charge for those not wishing to register.
Coun Clayton’s amendment was defeated and the proposal to introduce charges was carried by the council.
